Onalaska

To Sing for Nights

Dim Mak

Onalaska is made up of musicians from several notable bands, including Botch and Kill Sadie, who got together to create some dark and gloomy folk-core tunes of longing and despair. Many of the songs feature tongue in cheek references to various things, but the tones and vibrations coming from the instruments totally overshadow any humor that might crop up. While I don’t consider myself a fan of folk-based rock, I must say that I was thoroughly impressed with To Sing For Nights, for many reasons.

The guitars are absolutely fabulous! Their tone is warm and welcoming, just like a tray of sugar cookies fresh from the oven on Christmas day; so buttery and toasty! For the most part, there is always a bass guitar playing (along with a soft, shuffled drum beat), a rhythm guitar, and another guitar that plays subtle melodies from time to time. It sounds as if the guys in the band are playing through antique (’60s & ’70s) tube amps, as such a lovely tone would be hard to get from anything non-tube based.

The vocalist’s voice is awesome, yet very hard to describe. All I can really come up with is a cross between Cat Stevens and Neil Young, with a splash of Mick Jagger. It’s actually quite remarkable, the breadth of emotion this guy gets across, without sounding like that’s his goal.

The album, as a whole, is just a fun little romp through sadness. Clocking in at just under a half an hour, it’s long enough to sit down and read to, but not so long that it will put you to sleep. Not quite country, not quite folk, but a little bit of both, I’m really actually stunned at how much I enjoy To Sing For Nights; this type of stuff usually makes me ill. Well done!

Is that CD defective? Or are those the sounds of Squarepusher, slicing and dicing bits of jazz and dub into intriguing sound collage? Ian Koss discussed the man’s sanity and why Jaco Pastorius ruined bass for everyone.